Guides:Obscure References
Canonical references from the developer There are a lot of references already in GearHead, but I think that I'm the only one who gets them. That's fine with me. I don't really want the game to have too many in-jokes; that would get cheesy fast. Still, a number of them are inevitable... *The Atomic War Club is a reference to Sam and Max. At one point they need a piece of wood, and Sam says something like "Not a baseball bat, what we need here is an atomic war club". *Denomoles in Ipshil is a reference to movie/comic book writer Ed Solomon. *Silver Virtue in Namok is the name of my wife expressed in Chinese characters, "Eun Suk". The name of the shopkeeper, Okko, is the name of my mother in law expressed in Japanese. *All the major characters in Cayley Rock are named after members of folk punk band Captain Tractor. *The hosts of Robot Warriors in Snake Lake are named after the real life hosts of the TV show Robot Wars. Vikki Shingo in Hogye is named after competitor Vikki Allgood. *The five original Savins are loosely based on the five Gundams from Gundam Wing. *Some characters and locations are taken from my first CRPG, Realm of Sendai. Evil Elric's House of Hurt is a store in the game; at one point in time Elric goes missing and the store is staffed by his wife. Turing was the PC's mentor and a party member. Nara is the village the game begins in; it gets destroyed by monsters part way through the game. Kist is a nearby village that at one point gets occupied by the military. *Hyolee is not named after the Korean singer Hyolee, but is instead named after one of my students after I asked her for a name for a pretty, smart girl and she gave her own name. *The Zeron Armor is based on the Guyver bio-booster armor; I can't remember off hand who created it originally. *The Koenoke Cube and the Biskup Engine are references to the creators of Moria and Adom, respectively. *The SantiagoZ Historical Society is named after roguelike developer Santiago Zapata. Player Spotted References and Easter Eggs Since these are the thoughts of players, and not necessarily confirmed by the author, some of these may simply be misread subtext. *The designation of the Arachnoid form mecha, the Domino, in Gearhead 1 is ED-210. Possibly a reference to the ED-209 robot from the movie Robocop. *In one of the Bounty Hunter missions, the NPC references having to 'bomb the dump from orbit'. Possibly a nod to the famous 'Nuke the site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure' line from Aliens. *A used Mecha Salesman in Snake Lake Waterfront is named Weasely Crusher, possibly a reference to Wesley Crusher a character from Star Trek:The Next Generation played by Wil Wheaton. (Ed. Bias: Who is also a pretty cool blogger.) *In one of the Bandit missions the dialog makes mention of a shipment of 'gundamium', presumably a reference to the popular mecha related anime universe Gundam. *In one of the Guardian missions the player is sent against a gang called the 'Redshirt Legion', presumably a reference to the infamously expendable security team extras from the science fiction TV show Star Trek. *In the initial tutorial plot if you refuse Quentin's offer of a mecha tutorial he suggests that "Even if you've already nabbed a few amulets and killed a couple of balrogs this information could be useful." A clear homage to the classic Rogue, originator of the Roguelike genre. *The Gajira Heavy Missile Launcher from GH1 is possibly a reference to Gojira the original name of Godzilla. *The Cyclops guards use the combat taunt: "You have no chance to survive. Make your time." a line used in the infamous All Your Base scene from the English translation of Zero Wing. Likewise in the list of random conversation threats is the phrase "send you up the bomb", which references "set you up the bomb" from the Zero Wing intro. Also in the threats list is "boot your head", possibly a reference to the famous Dr. Demento sketch/song 'Boot to the head'. *In the game Ultima Fighter, the boss Lord Gariott is a reference to Richard Gariott, aka Lord British, who is the author of the Ultima RPG series. *Peaceful electric rats say "Chu?" or "Chu." which may be a reference to Pikachu. (Technically, thunder rats also say this, which reflects Pokemon evolution into a Raichu) *Hyolee's dinosaur, named Fluffy, is likely a reference to the vicious three-headed giant dog in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_and_the_Philosopher's_Stone Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone]. Like Hyolee, Hagrid has a soft spot for his favorite "Fluffy". *One of the responses to Vikki's quiz question of which part may be used for attacking besides the arms and the legs is "Er... that'd be the butt, Vikki." This is a reference to the infamous reply to one of the questions on the Newlywed game. (Snopes article) *The Vadel mecha might be named "Vader" with L/R confusion. The mecha seems a little Vader-like, and it would fit the game's playful tone.